It's 3 days until Christmas and this month really just feels like a blur. Before I blink and see that 2015 is gone, I thought I should catch up on daily happenings on the blog. Here goes nothing!
The past month has been pretty easy entertainment. Noah is thrilled with all Christmas decor and doesn't stop talking, so we grab his flashlight and head out almost every evening to walk around the neighborhood, so we can hear him exclaim, "Lights! Eeendeer! Seeenta! Star! No-man! Or-ma-ments!"
Our neighborhood may be dull starting next week when all the decor begins to come down.
I'm always itching to find fun holiday traditions to carry out with the kids each year. We ventured into Naples into an older community that is known for almost every house decorating like crazy! We drove down to Naples not knowing what to really expect, and boy, was I excited to see the kids' reactions! My 7 year old, who used to be thrilled with a trip to the grocery store at age 4, is pretty tough to excite at this age. He could not stop talking about how incredible it was!! He just kept going on and on about how he couldn't believe all the lights! I was mentally telling myself how this drive will become our yearly tradition from here on out. My favorite house was the homemade Grinch decor with the movie audio playing over speakers as you drove by
This past week we ventured out to mini golf and ice cream with our favorite Nana! It wasn't the more relaxing mini golf outing as Connor was in fast forward to hurry to get to the next hole for some reason and clutsy Noah was busy climbing each hump and bump and danced all too closely to the various wide open bodies of water along the way!
Noah was pretty funny trying to mimic the other playing with his caveman-like plastic club and ball. Not sure just how accurate our golf card was with Noah coming behind each player to pick up their ball and place it into the hole. Whoops!
A day in the life with this tiny Goon is never dull. Connor and I must talk every day about how Noah has got to be the craziest baby in the world. On this day, he chose to trot around in my shoes for a good 10 minutes and chuckle.
About a month ago, I was going through serious Connor withdrawal. He was gone for 5 days at his Dad's for Thanksgiving break and it felt horrible to be apart from him. I got to thinking of how I'd love to just have some good one on one time with him. I planned a weekend trip to Orlando to go to the Magic Kingdom the day Connor got out of school for winter break.
I have to say, tackling Disney with only one child is WAY less exhausting! Connor and I counted and we went on 8 rides before lunch time! It was a freeeeeezing 40-something degrees and we merely died, but it was so great!
I had the underlying mom pressure to get all our fast passes set just right, so we could go on as many rides as possible without having to wait in line. We had a few hiccups in our day when we got to certain rides & they were temporarily shut down (I screamed inside, but kept the upbeat, positive attitude flowing).
We had hopes of lasting until nighttime to see the great fireworks and parades after dark, but by 3pm, we were good and wiped out! C had fun exploring Tom Sawyer's Island (rather boring, but fun to explore freely with no boundaries). We decided to catch a parade at 3:30 pm then make our way back to the car. We found a good spot for the parade just in time for it to start and this woman was kind of a 'space hog' in front of us, so our views were pretty limited. I found myself hoisting my large child on my back so he could see. I had already sacrificed my back for a few picky back rides earlier in the day to give Connor the rest he needed from all the walking, so my body was screaming at me at this point. About half way through the parade, I caught a view of an area about 6 feet over from us that we could squeeze into and see better. I courteously asked the people if they wouldn't mind if Connor and I sat next to them. The woman turned to me, obviously not knowing much of English, and firmly said, "No, we stand!" I tried to kindly explain I wasn't asking her to sit, but was just asking if we could sit, and she just seemed confused... so we sat anyway! Ha!!
Since I'm not a big believer in 'selfies,' we took a few of our 'real face feeling' photos.
Side note: My big boy may be getting too big to want pictures with Disney characters, but he still waved happily to each character that went by during the parade.
When C requested an Icee on our way out of Disney, I tried to make it happen. We were herded like cattle among a million other people just after the parade and couldn't find a darn Icee place to save our lives. When I did find one, it was lemonade flavor and I knew that wouldn't cut it! I asked every other little shop and finally decided on strawberry ice cream instead. Phew! Connor napped in the car while I fought I-4 traffic on the way back to Katie's house. I didn't realize how tiring it is to drive when on vacation! Sheesh! Pretty sure I was asleep on the couch by 8:30 pm while Katie and C watched "Home Alone."
When we got home the next day, we missed this little Monster.
Side note: Noah has been on utensil strike for a good year. He refused to eat almost any food on a utensil, except ice cream. It was a huge break though when I got him eating applesauce AND with a spoon.
And then this morning...
Noah decided he wanted to trace my ABC letters on the road while we played outside. He wrote the whole alphabet at his own will.
So to keep track-- This month Noah learned to spell and read 12 words, can sing his alphabet song with just letter sounds (Ex. Ah, Beh, Cuh, Duh, Eh. Fuh. etc) and is enjoying trying to write his alphabet.
This child is a pistol, but one smart little nugget.
That is all for now. Maybe I'll get some pictures of Christmas (ha!)
